A Week Of Progress

Sometimes you can spend hours and hours working and everything still looks like a crazy mess or a horribly long process that will never be completed. At least this week was not like that.

I have worked many hours in the shop trying to be the best assistant I can to our DS/Pastor/Project Coordinator/Fix everything guy. This week the task was to prepare for the floor guy and the painter. Both were coming on Friday. Since we have a floor with more waves than the California cost and spots with a drop so dangerous it could be part of the Mavericks surf tournament, we had a lot of prep work to do before the floor guy came to lay the foundation layer. And so the entire week was spent laying a geometrical nightmare of plywood to create a level and stable foundation. Of course with my illogical mind this whole process looked like one confusing mess to me. It became my job to help lift and move boards and to make sure they were screwed down well. Along the way I also did some small finishing tasks to the walls. 

Finally after many, many hours of labor, cleaning, and preparing I met the floor guy Friday morning and this time he went to work. After we spent days ripping six layers of carpet, wood, and cement flooring out, it's kind of defeating to watch almost that many layers being put back on. Well, not on every part of the floor but on some of the lowest parts. Still it makes you think why didn't we just stop at the first layer of carpet. That would have saved us a lot of work. Well, most often it takes a lot of work to do a job right. We will now have an even floor throughout the shop and there is not the threat of the floor breaking beneath us anymore. So, yes all of that work may have been hard and long and set us back on our time schedule, but we will be able to guarantee that our customers won't fall through the floor. And even though it does not have the final flooring on it, it does look like a beautiful glassy sea instead of a coast line.


Friday evening I also met the painter and left him to spray the first primer layer. I am so excited to walk into the shop on Saturday and see how bright the white makes it. Also, I am excited that the amount of dust in the shop has dropped enormously.

So this week we see progress because it is beginning to look like a building we can use instead of a construction site (as long as you don't look in the kitchen, bathrooms, or storage rooms).

Yes, there has been a lot of sweat, blood, and tears (I really did start to cry when the vacuum cleaner died on me with still half the shop to go). Like anything in life it takes getting some bruises and shedding some tears to grow to a better place. :)

Help! We Need Some Supplies

Right now we are in the middle of remodeling the main cafe room and building the coffee bar. It has been a long hard process.  This week I met with the CEO of an industrial kitchen supplier here in Denmark. He is in the process of drawing plans and providing a list of suggestions for the kitchen appliances. The blessing of this is that the Founder and CEO of this company (H. W. Larsen) has come to see our place because they were interested in our idea of a non-profit shop and are preparing all plans free of charge. But, they can not provide us with all appliances free of charge. So, we are looking for help in being able to purchase much needed Kitchen and Bar items. These prices are actually discounted prices that they will give to us. Here is the list of items-
Item                                   DKK         USD
Espresso machine             17,788          3,086 (has been donated! THANK YOU!!!)
Coffee grinder (Espresso)      4,995             867
Coffee grinder (Black coffee) 4,375     759
Coffee brewer (Black coffee)  3,173      551
Display cooler (small)          3,750      651
Tapestry for wall                  1,500      260

Dishwasher                         22,089    3,832
Baking oven                           5,505       955
Toaster                                   1,961       340
Blender                                   5,019       871
Hand blender                           3,346       581

If you are interested in helping us out. Please email me (or leave a comment with your email address) and I will give you more details.

playing or working... a month of progress

Today marks my 1 month anniversary for my second term in Denmark. I can't believe it has only been a month because I feel like I have been back forever. We have been working hard in the shop. I have been in the shop, almost every day, slowly work away at all of the many projects and many tasks it takes to make a cafe. The past week I have gotten to add cementing walls to my list of experiences and tasks that I have accomplished while doing ministry. It has been a time of work, work, work. But, all work and no play makes Katie a boring girl. So, during the times of chipping and sanding away at floors, walls, and ceilings I have found ways to keep myself and others entertained. Let's just face it, I am good at finding crazy things to do. Like-

deciding to climb out of a window just because I can do it. :) But, really we have made a lot of progress in the shop. We are a day of work away from the professionals coming in. The professionals will paint the whole shop with the sprayer and lay the flooring. We have been delayed with the floor. When we discovered the hole that goes from our shop to the basement and that part of it was rotted wood, we had to stop and now wait for it to be examined before we can continue on. The only plus side of this is that because it is a building problem, and not just our problem we will have some help paying for the repair. To see the progress of the shop check out this photo album- sweet surrender copenhagen

At least all of the work has not been the gross, hard, dirty, exhausting kind. Last week we met with two different coffee suppliers. It was so nice to discuss and taste coffee, and of course it resulted in an over-caffeinated Katie. But, they had fresh Kenyan to try- I could not resist! We have chosen our coffee supplier. :) Now we are almost a coffee shop. We just need the espresso machine set up!

Our opening date has been moved to the first of May. We are still in need of Work & Witness teams this summer. We are also in a real need to purchase items for the shop. We still need kitchen and bar appliances. If you are interested in helping us, please email me. Thanks!

A Tour of Sweet Surrender Copenhagen

Thank You to all of our supporters. Here is a video showing what our shop is now and what we hope it will be in the future. :)

the work has begun

I have been back in Danmark for about a week now. And I have been busy busy. It is go time for work in the shop. I jumped right in with the cafe team. We have been working at the shop every evening and all day on Saturday. We have had a number of volunteers from the church that have been helping us. Our first goal is to get the main rooms fixed up and ready to use. We also need to do some serious cleaning in the bathrooms and kitchen before we can open. But remodeling them and turning to old beer storage room into the children's room will have to wait until we have work and witness teams to help us. 

So it is time for us to do the hard core manual labor. I can now add floor ripper and wall sander to my resume. We needed to rip out the old carpet to be able to lay a new floor. We pulled up the first layer if disgusting beer and puke stained carpet only to find another layer and then another and another. We tore up 6 layers in all before we found the bottom wood floor. But that was only in half of the main room. When we started pulling layers on the other side of the room we found that the previous owners had laid cement in place of a couple layers of carpet. So we get to bust cement in the middle of our carpet ripping. The other great task has been to sand all of the wooden walls in the shop so that we can paint them. And by all wooden walls, I mean the entire shop. It has been hours of arm work-outs and dust baths. 

On the exciting side of work (because let's just face as accomplished as the construction work makes me feel, it would never be my first choice of work) we have been designing a bar, looking at different appliances/machines and talking about menus. All the wonderful things that make this old dirty bar a cafe. 

This has been a week of the joys of being a volunteer missionary. Switching from manual laborer, barista, cook, and minister. Life as a volunteer is never boring. 

Leaving the States.... Again

It is almost that time again. Soon I will be packing that big suitcase, weighing it, stuffing it, hoping to get every little last thing into it. Then there will be airport checkins with heavy bagage payments and security checks, followed by long boring waits, feeling completely trapped in a little space for hours on end, wishing I could actually sleep on a flight. Only to land across the ocean, go through it again, but at least this little space is much shorter. Then there is picking up the heavy suitcase and going through customs and finally seeing someone, anyone from the church is like seeing the most important person in the world. Because that person will be the one who drives me to the place I get to crash, my Danish home. Yeah, it's that horrible traveling time again. I don't think I will ever enjoy this process.

But, even though the travel time is a pain, it will all be worth it when I walk through the door of my home in Denmark. I am ready to go. (maybe not physically yet, but emotionally and mentally.) I am returning to some new exciting adventures. We now have purchased a location for our shop. The team has already started the process of cleaning it out and preparing to do some remodeling work so we can open it soon. I am really excited to return to the shop and get things started.

I have raised enough funds to live and work in Denmark for another year! Thank you to all who helped me raise all of the funds. I appreciate all of the help. If you want to help me through out the year, you can donate online at- Katie Fitch in Denmark . Also, remember to check back here for info of what is going on in Denmark!

My time in Danmark is coming very quickly to a close. Soon I will be packing up and boarding that forever long flight to home. Like the end of every trip I have been busy taking care of final things and reflecting on my time here. I have really loved being in Denmark. I did not think I would ever love another country like I loved Poland, but Denmark has won my heart. I think the biggest lesson I have learned since I have been here is to be still and wait for God to move. So much of the work with the cafe has been waiting. We have not gotten answers quickly or in the time frame that I would want. But, God does not always work in the way we want. We have to wait and for His response. Now we have a found a location that we love. The owners group is very supportive of our cafe plan, including our desire to help people. So, now we once again wait through the negotiation process. Our hope is to have the place by January and open around March. We are communicating with different Work and Witness teams interested in coming and helping this summer. Things are beginning to happen!

And I am in a position where I have to go home. The main reason is once again, I need to fundraise. Right now, it's hard for me to see how it will all work out. I am still $6,000 short of what I need to work for a year here. If you are interested in helping out you can donate online-  http://web.nazarene.org/goto/kfitch. Or email me at katie_rae27@yahoo.com. I would love to come and share what we are doing at your Church, Sunday school, or Small Group meetings. God is moving here in Denmark. I am so excited to return and open the shop and start the church. There is a need, we want to fill it, and God is moving us to do it as we glorify Him.